Park outings

We took Roslyn on her first car ride the other day. Dad/Grandpa had to drive and I think he was a little nervous at first but he did a great job. We started off at Volunteer Park where we walked around the very hot conservatory. Then we meandered around the park a bit. After that we headed to Carkeek park which is along the water. We sat on the logs and wandered around the rocks, watched the trains pass.

That evening all 5 of us went to our favorite happy hours spot and had a large lovely meal, Roslyn was a champ and didn't make a peep.

Walter the Westy's first adventure

We've been looking into Vanagon's for awhile now. As in Joshua finds them and I offer comments. Recently he found one in Sacramento, CA and was like this is the one. So we did it- we bought tickets, flew to California with only sleeping  bags, drove around in a van and then bought it! The man we bought it from was so kind and took such good care of the van. Also turns out buying a car and spending lots of money is a fast process so before you knew it the van was ours and we were driving it back to Seattle.

The first little town we came upon happened to be called YOLO which we found very amusing as this was the most YOLOey thing we've ever done. So we searched for a sign to get our van a selfie with. :) We grabbed some typical California In n Out burger and we were on our way. 

I think Joshua had a smile on his face the whole time he was driving the van. It felt like ours, it felt like home. We made lots of little pit stops, dreamt of adventures we wanted to go on, and discussed names for the van. Stopped at a little state park for the night where we got to pop the top and sleep in him! The previous owner gave us the foam mattress topper and it was amazing. We both woke up very giddy.

Then it was to the Redwood Forest NP. Figured since it was mostly on the way we didn't want to waste the drive or Walter's first adventure. We got passes to do the Tall Trees Grove which was filled with some very very tall redwoods. We got there early and had the trail to ourselves. It was quite magical to walk around among these beasts by ourselves.

Then I remembered a café and had him backtrack to snag some diner breakfast, worth it! Drove out to do the Fern Canyon hike, as featured in Jurassic Park. You walk up a creek, never been more thankful for waterproof boots, that is walled in by these 50 ft lush green fern walls. They are magical, that much texture on the walls towering over you was quite a sight. We also met another Westy friend in the parking lot. It appears we may have joined some kind of culture cult. I think Walter will equal many random friends, which we look forward to.

Then we still had about 6 hours to drive home. It was a haul and we rolled in at 2am Sunday night but decided it was still totally worth it to sneak in the hikes in the Redwoods. Monday was a little rough though.

Now to fix up Walter, Joshua the mechanical/electrical parts, me the inside fun parts. Can't wait to share his adventures!!!

Hunter & Gatherer

 

Ok so not hunter, but I always feel so accomplished when I go pick my own berries and come home all loaded up. We biked out to Discovery park this past weekend and picked over a gallon of blackberries, and it was deeply satisfying.

 

The sunshine, quiet, and foraging for the best spot as deep inside the bushes as you can go without falling into a bundle of thorns, I love that feeling! We both came away with a fair number of battle wounds but that just means we worked to get the best ones, I think. Just one of those perfect ways to spend a lazy Saturday where you still feel totally accomplished.

 

Then the next day I made them into homemade pies, eek it just makes me giddy!

 

Then we finished off the night biking to a few breweries with some friends and soaking in all the fresh outside air we could handle. O and then we really finished it off by having a giant plate of poutine under cute twinkly lights!

 

Arches National Park

 

 

 

After arriving in Utah we drove to a really nice park along the highway that wove around a mile up into the hills called Price Canyon Recreation Area for a cheap first-come-first serve campsite. This was the only campsite we could have a fire. The site was beautiful and quiet and the stars that night were unbelievable, even a little chill in the air that night (not for long)

 

We started out our anniversary trip this year in Arches National Park. We knew it would be busy so but wanted to see it so we got it out of the way early. Utah was HOT upper 90's whew. We hiked to the Delicate Arch which had fun views as you wove around rock formations until you got to the arch itself which was quite a stunner. This one felt unique because it stood alone and all stately-like.

 

We also checked out the Double arch and the Windows Arches which were pretty massive and provided primitive trials you could take which brought you away from the masses which was really nice. Just getting to soak in the arches was fun, picking out different rock types and trying to figure out how the middles came out of them.

Double Arch

windows arches

windows arches

 





formation names left to right : the three gossips, sheep rock, tower of babel, the organ



Overall the park was beautiful and everything was really accessible. Except a large portion of the hikes in an area were closed for parking lot renovations (terrible excuse!!!) At the end of the day we settled into a comfy campground, grabbed a beer at the Moab Brewery and found some imitation dippin' dots to cool us off. Next we're headed to Canyonlands Needles District to be totally surrounded by all the Utah landscape...

 (1st anniversary trip

2nd anniversary trip )

A National Park Thanksgiving

After our short soiree in Vegas we took off on a 4 hour drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The drive was beautiful, a desolate landscape with sun rays touching every surface and giant rocks puncturing the landscape.

We ran into some snow near and at the Rim which we hadn't expected. The North Rim is taller than the more popular and well known canyon views of the south rim. Sadly the sun was not in an ideal location and we quickly understood why the South Rim is the iconic view but it was still fun to see it and look deep into it's cavernous walls.

Then we jumped back into the car and headed for Zion. We drove into Zion as the sun was setting over the large sandstone formations and forcing them into a violent red contrasting the cloudless blue sky, it was quite the view. We also drove through a mile long tunnel under one of the rocks which was quite impressive. Finally landing in our campsite hubs set to work setting up the tent and such and I got to work on our Thanksgiving feast. It truly was a feast! We cooked the turkey over the fire and roasted a head of garlic to put in the potatoes while they softened in a ball of foil deep in the fire. This year though I also had concocted a plan to make stuffing over the fire, I love stuffing! And lo and behold and to our tummies great satisfaction it was delicious! We had a lovely Thanksgiving feast, we had leftover turkey for sandwiches the next day and we didn't even get to the fire-made pies until the next night. The intense and vast stars that hung over our campsite that night were the real showstoppers though.

Wood Fired Stuffing:
for two

5-6 pieces of bread; set out to get stale
1 red onion; diced
4-5 stalks celery; diced
2 eggs
1/2-2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
butter
& a cast iron pie maker

1   make a fire with some great coals
2   in foil place a tbs or two of butter and the onion and celery, seal it
3   place in fire until veggies are tender
4   stick pie maker in fire to heat up for a minute or two
5   melt butter into both sides of the pie maker to avoid sticking
6   mix bread, sautéed veggies, spices, eggs, 1/2 cup chicken broth in a bowl
7   add more chicken broth as necessary to get the bread coated
8   fill one side of the pie maker full of stuffing mixture
9   close it and place over coals of fire for a few minutes
10  rotate pie maker
11  pull it out of the fire and dish it out
mmmmmm!

We're thinking of making cooking Thanksgiving dinner over the fire an tradition. We've had a lot of fun with it the last two years.

And NOW some Zion Hiking

Berry Pickin'

 

It was a really nice day and we decided to go blackberry picking. It's something we had meant to do but never had the time and it was a great day for it. We hauled in about a gallon of blackberries. Josh's mom was here and I knew they used to go picking with his grandpa so Joshua & I thought it would be fun to go do it all together at Discovery Park.

Joshua ate most of the ones he picked for awhile there :)

I loved all the holes in the bushes where you could see that

people had been picking and leaning in there

I had ducked under some branches at one point and couldn't reverse back out so Joshua had to untangle me. Made it out with only a few thorn scratches though & tons of berries, the important part!

 

When the sun shines

We layed out in the sunshine at Greenlake this past weekend and our friends came over to join us. We did a little reading, sun-soaking, and napping. I may have even gotten a little color- my poor legs have never been so white. Also drank some amazing rhubarb ginger beer from the market mmmm.

rainbow around the sun !!!! :)

I also made us summery salads from my garden :)